Medication to help with drug withdrawal and addiction urges can be a major part of treatment at drug rehab centers. But staff members’ mistakes with medication, such as administering the wrong medication or the wrong dosage, can also put vulnerable patients at more risk.

California victims and their families can file claims to earn support for recoveries from injuries. Families can also file wrongful death claims when a mistake with medication causes a tragic fatality.

Facilities are also responsible for providing a safe environment for patients and keeping them there as long as they need treatment. When patients are able to elope from a clinic and come to harm, facility owners are also liable.

Medication Errors Leading to Rehab Patient Injuries

Medication can be a critical part of the recovery process for Substance Use Disorder (SUD) sufferers. But even a small MAT (medications for addiction treatment) mistake or recklessness can cause a major injury and the risk of life.

Prescription medication can safely bring someone down from an overdose. It can help victims with their cravings while trying to detox. It can treat symptoms of drug use like an elevated heart rate.

Unfortunately, extreme care and oversight are needed when dealing with these drugs. Staff members can make a mistake in the dosage of the medication. They can give the wrong meds to the wrong patient. They may even engage in criminal behavior and steal pills to take or to sell.

These mistakes and bad judgment can arise due to some very common issues allowed at California facilities:

• Untrained staff unable to be trusted with medication responsibilities
• Unqualified staff involving negligent hiring
• Staff members stealing medication
• Poor security in a med room (e.g., poor record keeping, negligent monitoring)
• Negligent supervision
• Medical malpractice by doctors and nurses
• Miscommunication between medical professionals
• A pharmacist’s mistake in bottling and labeling the medication
• Ignoring the effects of two drugs when taken together (one example is taking Methadone and Suboxone together. The combination can do toxic damage to the heart and cause respiratory issues.)
• Carelessness that leads to a dose not being given at all

These mistakes can put patients already struggling with withdrawal and recovery at critical risk. And victims and their families should never face the consequences alone.

Support for Victims of a Medication Error at a Rehab

The utilization of powerful drugs like methadone, buprenorphine, naltrexone, and psychiatric medications will always require extra caution and security. But facilities promise this level of safety inside their walls.

Unfortunately, their staff members can fail patients. Families and injured victims are right to ask questions and file injury claims.

Patients Injured by a MAT Error: can ask for support, including the payment of all medical bills stemming from an injury. They can seek compensation for the additional time they’ve had to miss from their jobs. The money that’s been paid into the negligence program should be refunded. The emotional toll another setback in recovery will have should be compensated.

A Tragic Medication Error Death: Families who lose a loved one at a clinic to a medication error can demand wrongful death support. This support should include money to pay funeral costs and all remaining medical bills. It should support the family now and in the future by replacing the income the loved one may have provided through employment. The extreme emotional toll family members will continue to face must also earn support.

An experienced attorney can fight to make sure victims and their families receive enough in support to help them through all of their hardships for as long as necessary.

Fatal Elopement of Patients at a Trusted Drug Rehab Facility

Drug treatment centers are also liable for the security of patients, and that can involve keeping them within the confines of the facility.

• Lack of security
• Lack of bed checks
• Too little monitoring of patients
• A failure to identify a flight risk
• Negligence in reporting someone missing

Another risk of patients leaving on their own is the tolerance to drugs that has likely been erased for them. Through abstinence and detox while at a recovery center, their tolerance has been lowered. It can mean that if they flee and overdose on drugs, their body’s reaction to the dose can be much worse, even leading to death. It’s why a relapse is so dangerous for patients.

Rehab owners are liable for these tragic deaths, but they also have corporate lawyers ready to try to discredit victims and leave families with nothing.

Evidence will be key, and an experienced lawyer can greatly help with building a strong case. Facilities will work to restrict access to internal documents, security footage, and medication records, but an aggressive lawyer can request these details and make sure they aren’t swept under the rug.

What If I Can’t Afford a Lawyer…

If you require our help, you don’t have to worry about how your family will pay a lawyer. Mr. Gasparian works on a contingency basis. It means you don’t pay unless he wins for you. Even then, the attorney’s fee is paid out of the settlement check a rehab clinic must write for your family.

Call us today or fill out a free case review form. It’s a confidential, no-risk way to go over your options and figure out how to hold a drug treatment facility fully responsible for its negligence.